Saturday, February 18, 2012

So today is the day. Today we hit exactly 5 days until the movers arrive to pick up our accumulations from the last 3 years of our lives together. 6 days until the carpet cleaners will arrive. 7 days until we move out of our wonderful 2 bedroom Navy-issued housing. 8 days until I am out of the Navy. 10 days until we get on a plane to head back to the East Coast. 11 days until we land and will be welcomed into the arms of my most beloved friend, Mindy and my wonderful grandparents. 11 days until I get to once again call Virginia my home. 11 days until our new lives have started. I don't think anyone could understand just how excited I am.

Walls are bare now. All the linens are getting washed for the movers. Clothes that don't fit any more are getting taken to Good Will. Our massive yard sale is getting planned. Our wonderful, comfy couch is getting sold next week. Everything is happening so fast.

So here are the ideas I am hoping to accomplish in our new apartment. I will provide links to the items under each photo if you are interested.

Well, I don't think this post could get any longer, but I think I have covered a lot of the basics. I just hope that we can actually get everything done in a timely manner. I am planning on taking a trip up North to Ikea. It probably won't happen until we get our rental car or have someone take us up there. I hate that Ikea will be a 3 hour drive away. I can't wait to get into the new place and start making it our own. I will keep you up to date as things get closer and then once we get there. There will be a whole post on what our new apartment looks like and where we plan to put everything.

Thank you all for sticking with us through this journey and I look forward to all our future endeavors.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

David had to work last night so we celebrated when he got home at midnight. We had Belgian waffles with strawberries and powered sugar. They were delicious! Then David got to open Valentine's Day gifts. This is what he saw when he walked into our room.

He loved it. I only used two balloons because we have only been together two years (3 years in April). I got this idea from Jenny at Crossing the Bugger-Dixon Line. I love it so much. I was working for DAYS on my 52 Reasons Cards that I stole from my dear friend, Ariel, over at For the Love of Pinterest who got them from Lowri over at PaperVine. Great originality, right? I did put my own spin on them though. After some frustration of trying to use Picknik on Facebook and failing after about 5 reasons, Ariel told me to try using PowerPoint. Let me tell you, she is an absolute genius! It told me where the center of each card was and I could adjust the size of the "reasons" to fit my cards. For some unknown reason, even with 104 pieces of paper glued on, I thought that the cards would be thin enough to fit back in the original box. H-E-double-hockey-sticks NO! No where close. So I ended up having to use a Joker card I had left over. It just sat neatly in a stack on the bed until hubby got home. I didn't use binder rings or anything. We already had playing cards, one pack out of 3 was sacrificed for this project. We had paper and glue already too.

Total out of pocket cost: $3.50 for some rhinestones I used on the front.

Next gifts were the balloons, but instead of love notes, I put the lyrics to a song that reminds me of my dear hubby and a little note on the bottom. The other one two tickets to the new Star Wars 3D movie to tomorrow night in a card I found here. Isn't it adorable? Finally a dinner and movie night! :)

Total out of pocket cost: $4 for balloons + $28 for 3D movie passes + $0 for the card = $32

Oh, and for the waffles. I thought I took pictures, but I guess not.

Total out of pocket cost: $0!! We already had everything! :)

Then when we woke up after breakfast and his gifts, I made Red Velvet cupcakes and some delicious brownies. Now I have never made red velvet cake from scratch and I had some box mixes and some milk that I had to use up before the move so I just used that and replaced the water with milk and doubled the eggs in the brownies. David thought they were delicious. I also had enough left over red velvet batter to make a pretty thin cake. I tried to use a doily to put a heart on it with powered sugar (I was too lazy to make icing), but it was a complete flop. Although, I did find out Rosie LOVES powered sugar. :)

So for an amazing Valentine's Day I spent a total of $35.50 and he loved everything! I think I got a little tear out of him too.

Now - from him I got a really big teddy bear, an absolutely amazing card, and a jar full of gift certificates for things that I am definitely going to take advantage of. Examples - Trip to the Nail Salon, Night out with the Girls, Having "World Renowned Stylist from Pennsylvania, David" color my hair <--Love this one, and some other at home stuff like back rubs and foot rubs. He is making dinner tonight too! I definitely think I am going to take advantage of a bunch of these before we move!

I am so lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful man for a Husband. I need to remember to take the time to thank God every day for my Husband and our wonderful Dachshunds. Without them, who knows where I would be today.

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day like I did! Countdown is at 12 days until the big move! :)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

I know that it has been quite a while since I posted anything, but things are starting to get crazy here. We are officially 14 days away from me being out of the Navy! 16 days until we are on a plane back to the East Coast!

I received my orders the other day so we can start scheduling to have my car shipped and our household goods moved. We already received our plane tickets too! So now I am looking at what we want to take and what we want to sell before we leave. I would like to have a bit of extra cash when we arrive so we can go out and buy what we need to replace.

So far we are looking to sell our couch, TV stand, 2 entertainment centers, bed frame and headboard, some dressers, nightstands, extra bed and frame, bookcases, fish tank, David's car, and some other odds and ends. These next 2 weeks are going to be beyond hectic. Planning a yard sale, posting on Craigslist, and having friends come get the pick of the litter will be filling my days. I just hope we can get everything handled before its too late.

I am still working on Valentine's Day gifts for David. Slow and steady wins the race, right? All I know is that everything will be done on time and on budget. I will keep you up to date though!

I did manage to throw together this little number using an image I found on pinterest and the picnik app on Facebook. Here is the link with a BIG thanks to The Girl Creative for the beautiful design!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

We have finally hit the under 3 weeks mark. I am still waiting on my orders to separate. So to celebrate, I am spending the day watching White Collar and finding a decent recipe for Chicken Parmesan. I really love the recipe from Laura Vitale. You can find it here.

Well, David went ahead and made the Chicken Parmesan and it was not as kind to our stomachs as before. I could only eat a few bites and David's stomach is killing him. *Sad face*

It is now 3:27 am on the 5th and I am on the 2nd season of White Collar and I don't want to turn it off. I am so hooked! I really do need to get some sleep though. I have tons of stuff to get done today. Finishing up the laundry, working on Valentine's Day cooking and gifts for David. I was thinking about doing an idea that my dear friend Ariel did for her hubby. Its a deck of cards with 52 reasons why you love your significant other. It is so cute. I'll put the pictures up tomorrow once I get started. You can find it here. Good thing I bought color ink a few weeks back so I don't even have to go to the store. I am lazy if you know me at all. :)

Well, I am off to finish watching my show and folding laundry. Then I am off to bed. Good night! :)

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Yesterday was a bit of a mess. David was sick while I was in class all day so nothing really got done. The house was a mess and the laundry was beginning to pile up, but who cares. We were both starving so on my way home from class I picked up some hamburger meat, cheese, and crescent rolls.

I wanted to send a quick thank you to my dear friend, Ariel, over at For the Love of Pinterest for showing me some love for this new adventure for David and I. I hope that I can be as motivated as she is to keep this blog up... So now onto the rest of this post! :)

I found this amazing recipe here to make a Cheeseburger Crescent Bake. It is so quick and easy and always leaves left overs for lunch. We spent the night watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Yes, I cried. Its so sad! Whenever it ends though, I remind myself that I can just put in the first movie and there Harry is as a little boy again! I am such a schlup!Oh well! :)

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef, cooked, drained

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup dill pickle relish

1 1/2 shredded cheese (I used Colby-Jack, but you can use American if you like)

2. Separate dough into 8 triangles; roll up 1 inch on shortest side of dough. Place dough on top of meat mixture in spoke pattern with points towards center. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.3. Bake at 375°F 15 to 20 minutes.We finished the night off with some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip that I found here. It is okay. I am not really sure how I feel about the taste with the Cream Cheese, but David likes it a lot with some Nilla wafers. Here is the finished product.